Four Opportunities
by arliddian
Summary: Three times they didn't kiss, and one time they did. Abed/Annie one-shot.


**Four Opportunities**

* * *

**Summary: **Three times they didn't kiss, and one time they did. Abed/Annie one-shot.  
**Author's Note:** Trying to write out plot bunnies before season 4 starts and kills my head-canon!  
**Disclaimer:** Don't own it; don't sue me.

* * *

She was cornered in a hallway with no weapons in her hands, facing down a few members of the chess club. The set-up was perfect: the chess club had their backs to him, the broken overhead lights had him concealed in the darkness, and Annie was helpless.

All it took was three precise shots. The paint burst and bloomed across their backs, bright against their dark t-shirts. They whirled around in surprise, and Abed stepped out from the shadows, nonchalantly blowing across the barrel of his gun. Annie's eyes narrowed when she saw her rescuer; her would-be attackers grumbled, dropped their guns and shuffled off.

"A dame like you shouldn't be wandering alone in a place like this," Abed drawled as he replaced his weapon in his inside jacket pocket, moving slowly towards her with one eyebrow raised. "You could run into... trouble." He bent down and picked up one of the chess club guns to illustrate the point, removing and pocketing the almost-full clip of paintballs. Discarding the empty weapon, he resumed walking towards her.

Annie lifted her chin and stared back defiantly, and with a hint of pride, Abed marvelled at how well she, too, could fall into character.

"Maybe I like trouble," she returned, placing a hand on her hip. The corner of her lips curved upwards in a challenging and undeniably sultry look.

Abed stopped a few scant inches away. "That so?" he murmured, using his height to advantage as he looked down at her with heat in his gaze. "Or do you just like playing the damsel in distress?"

His gaze flickered to her mouth and he began to lean down, his lips nearing hers for a kiss that, while acceptable in the context, was definitely not what he had intended when he first saw her. But there was something about paintball, about their proximity, about _Annie_, that had him favouring a little... improvisation.

Their lips never met. Lightning-fast, Annie whipped her gun out from its concealed position strapped to her thigh under her dress. She grabbed Abed's arm, whirled around him and fired off four shots - straight into the chests of the four students who had been sneaking up the hallway with their weapons aimed at Abed's back.

She half-turned back to Abed and, imitating his earlier move, blew across the barrel of the gun.

"I'm no damsel."

With that, she sauntered away, leaving Abed staring wide-eyed after her.

* * *

"Abed, can you help me with this?" Annie asked, kicking the apartment door shut behind her, her arms full of grocery bags.

Her roommate held up a finger, eyes glued to the TV.

Annie sighed and began to haul her load over to the kitchen counter as best she could. To her surprise, she heard the sounds of the TV pause mid-sentence only a few seconds later, and then Abed appeared beside her, taking a couple of the heavy bags from her arms. She smiled at him in thanks.

"What are you watching?" she asked as they set the bags on the counter and began to put the groceries away.

"_Empire Strikes Back_," Abed replied blandly. "The original, not the remastered version."

"Oh." The mention of _Star Wars _took Annie's mind inevitably to Paintball 2011 and the incredible kiss they had shared in the library. She opened the fridge to put away the milk and juice, thankful for the air cooling her suddenly flushed cheeks.

The memory of that kiss was still enough to make her a little weak at the knees. It had taken a lot of willpower not to look for the Annie-of-it-all in her friendship with Abed during the following summer. And, embarrassingly, sometimes she _still_ had to remind herself that they were and would only ever be platonic friends because every so often he would do something like stroke her cheek while playing Batman, or act like Don Draper after watching too many episodes of _Mad Men _in a row, or squeeze her hand to reassure her during the scary parts of horror movies.

She opened one of the top cabinets and began placing packets of noodles on the shelf. She suddenly wondered if Abed ever thought about their kiss, or if he had dismissed and forgotten it as soon as they had washed the paint off their clothes. He had snapped out of character immediately after it happened, so it can't have affected him as much as it had affected her.

Then again, he _had_ kept kissing her after the first splatter of paint touched them and they were already technically 'dead'. And she hadn't seen him talk about or watch _Star Wars _since the paintball game. Until now, anyway...

She was so distracted by her thoughts that she didn't notice Abed move up behind her to reach over her head and place a few tins on the very top shelf of the cabinet. Startled by their sudden proximity, she stepped back and collided with his chest, tripping over his feet. He grabbed her wrist to steady her as she regained her balance.

The sounds of the movie suddenly filled the apartment, the pause on Abed's ageing DVD player having come unstuck again.

_"... you think I'm alright."  
"Occasionally. Maybe. When you aren't acting like a scoundrel."  
"Scoundrel? Scoundrel. I like the sound of that."_

Abed and Annie stood very still for a moment, his hand on her arm and her back pressed against his chest, and Annie could feel her heart pounding. All she could think about was Han and Leia and orange paint and the way her lips had felt against Abed's.

And if the thumping of Abed's own heart was anything to go by, he was thinking the same.

She craned her head back to look at him, and was surprised by the intensity in his eyes. In the background, the movie's score swelled, underlining that famous romantic dialogue (_You like me because I'm a scoundrel_). Abed began to lean in, and Annie's eyes drifted closed.

Troy's key scraped in the lock, the front door opened, and they sprang apart. Abed blinked at her, face once again impassive, and retreated back to his recliner without a word, joined a minute later by an excited Troy ("Cool! _Star Wars_!").

Annie was left alone with the groceries, a tingle in her wrist where his fingers had been, and lips that felt suddenly empty for not having touched his.

* * *

It fell to Abed to help Annie, because Troy was preoccupied with Britta and Annie wouldn't let go of Abed's arm. She just leaned heavily against him, all the way from the bar into the apartment. It was a good thing she didn't weigh much; in her drunken state she wasn't putting much effort into standing up on her own.

Abed wasn't sure what made her decide to drink so far beyond her limit tonight. She was usually very controlled. He made a quick mental replay of the evening. Pierce hadn't come out to the bar with the rest of them; Shirley had gone home early, true to form; Britta had alternated between laughing with Troy and arguing about nothing with Jeff; Jeff had started drunkenly hitting on waitresses in between arguments; Troy, as designated driver, had just been having a good time hanging out with Britta and Jeff; and Abed had spent the evening discussing every _Batman _film ever made with a girl named Ellen who was wearing a _Justice League_ t-shirt. Annie had been left to her own devices for the most part. Maybe she had felt left out? He made a mental note to process the information in the mini-Dreamatorium later.

When they reached her bedroom door, she let go of him and opened it, but then she paused and turned to face him, leaning against the door-frame. Troy and Britta had disappeared into the other bedroom and the apartment was dark and quiet.

"Did you have fun tonight?" Annie asked with a slight slur, not quite looking at him.

"Yes," he said, peering at her curiously. "Ellen and I debated the merits of the Burton films in light of Nolan's trilogy and argued about who played the better Catwoman. It was cool."

As he spoke, he saw her mouth turn down at the corners. She seemed upset about something, but Abed didn't understand why. Maybe she was mad about being left alone for most of the evening.

A tiny wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows, and she bit her lip. "We have fun together too, right?" Her tone sounded anxious and she was making a version of the Disney face that was somewhat less effective due to her inebriation.

"Of course," he answered her, cocking his head to the side and studying her face in confusion. There was some subtext to this conversation that he was missing.

"Really?"

"Yes. I like spending time with you."

Annie suddenly beamed at him, and the brightness of her smile made him want to smile back. "Good," she said, obviously pleased. "And I don't even _wear _comic book t-shirts," she added under her breath.

"What?" He could feel his brow creasing. She wasn't making a lot of sense. This whole exchange felt... off.

"Nothing." She ducked her head to ineffectually disguise a huge yawn. When she looked up at him again, she seemed much happier, making him feel like he had missed a step. It was an unusual feeling, and he didn't like it.

"Good night, Abed. Thanks for walking me to my room."

He was unprepared for the tight hug she gave him. His arms hung stiffly by his sides for a moment before he responded and lifted his hands to rest on her back. He thought he heard her make a tiny sigh at the moment he touched her, but she let go before he could contemplate it.

"Good night, Annie." He gave her a short nod and a brief smile, and turned towards the blanket fort.

Annie's hand shot out and grasped his arm. "Wait, Abed."

He turned back to her, glancing at her hand on his arm. "Yeah?"

She began to run her fingers up and down his sleeve, and she gave him a strange look that set off a faint alarm in his head.

"Do you..." she began, then paused and bit her lip. She seemed to be debating something with herself. A second later, her expression cleared, she met his eyes boldly with that same sultry smile he remembered from Paintball 2012, and asked, "Do you want to come in for a bit?"

... _Ah_. He had seen enough TV to recognise _this _scenario. Female lead, drunk and vulnerable, propositions male lead. Male lead, less drunk, refuses her advances for fear of taking advantage (designed to demonstrate male lead's heart-of-gold). Female lead misinterprets this as outright rejection, resulting in misunderstanding and tension. Male lead then wins back female lead with some kind of grand romantic gesture.

While he ran through the trope quickly in his head, Annie rose up on tiptoe, using her hand on his arm to balance herself as she leaned forward, lips parted slightly and eyes fluttering closed.

This was wrong. Abed was not supposed to be in this situation. He was not supposed to be playing Annie's leading man. Not like this, anyway, with both of them just being themselves and no paint splattered around them.

Yet here they were. And despite the fact that he knew this wasn't meant to be his role, he actually found himself torn between doing the sensible, scripted thing and being very tempted to kiss her.

That temptation seemed to be popping up a lot lately.

He mentally raced through the options, concluding that maybe, since he wasn't really the male lead, they could avoid the negative consequences that arose from the usual trope. He put his hands on her shoulders and gently but firmly pushed her back down onto her heels while he took a step back.

"Annie, you're drunk," he told her calmly, trying to make his voice sound gentle. "And this is a bad idea. Kissing would be a mistake."

Her eyes snapped open and she gaped at him for a moment. He waited, hoping that the scene would be subverted. But right on cue, she shut her mouth, made that sound that meant _I am offended_, and disappeared into her room, shutting the door much more heavily than necessary. Abed thought he might have seen tears brimming in her eyes just before the door closed.

He waited outside her door for a few minutes, listening until he was sure she had gotten into bed. And then he turned and walked straight into the mini-Dreamatorium. There was a lot of new data to process.

The situation had followed the trope exactly, which could only mean one thing. He wasn't sure when, or how, or _why_, but at some point he seemed to have been cast as Annie's romantic interest.

And to his surprise, the thought appealed to him.

* * *

Annie huffed angrily for what felt like the fiftieth time in an hour. Abed had asked her to help him study for his Advanced Science Fiction test, but he had been frustratingly distracted the whole time. Every couple of minutes he would check his watch and then stare through the doors of the study room, as if he was waiting for something outside. It was infuriating. She was already on edge because this was the first time they'd spent any real time alone together since what Annie privately referred to as the 'drunken mistake'. She was still feeling upset and embarrassed by her behaviour and his reaction, and it had taken a lot of willpower to say 'yes' when he'd asked for her help instead of making an excuse and escaping to her room. Being alone with him made it harder than ever not to think about and over-analyse all of their recent almost-kisses, and now, his lack of focus had her on her last nerve.

"Come _on_, Abed," she scolded. "You're the one who needs to study. Can't we just do this so we can get home before it starts raining? I couldn't find my umbrella in the apartment and I don't want to walk in the rain."

"Sorry, Annie."

Annie narrowed her eyes at him, because he sounded anything but apologetic, but he just returned her stare impassively. She was getting better at reading him after years of friendship, but it was still frequently impossible to deduce what he was thinking. His face rarely gave anything away. Even after all their near-misses, he always slipped smoothly back to his usual monotone and lack of expression, as if nothing had happened.

Sometimes that blank face could be kind of crushing.

For now, she gave him the benefit of the doubt and returned her attention to the book in front of her.

"Okay, on page seventy-nine there's a really useful summary of..." She glanced up and trailed off, because Abed had resumed staring through the doors.

"Abed, you're not even listening to me!"

"Sorry." He glanced down at his textbook, then back at her. "What did you say?"

Thunder rumbled, and a second later, the room filled with the sound of raindrops drumming on the roof. To her astonishment, Abed clenched his fist in a tiny gesture of triumph.

"It's raining," he observed entirely unnecessarily, pointing at the doors.

"That's it!" Incensed, Annie slammed the book shut and began gathering her things. "I wasted almost two hours trying to help you, and you've done nothing but stare out the window the entire time! You can get yourself through your quiz. I'm going home."

Without waiting for his reaction (_if he even _had _one_, she thought bitterly), she swung her backpack onto her shoulders and stormed out of the library. She let out a squawk of irritation as the rain hit her. Wrapping her arms tightly around her body, she ducked her head and hurried down the steps, muttering phrases like _stupid Abed_ and _so insensitive_ and _don't know why I even bother _under her breath.

"Annie, wait!"

She spun around at the sound of Abed's voice, frustrated and ready to snap at him. She watched in confusion as he bent down and pressed a button on an iPod dock tucked out of sight next to the library entrance. Suddenly, the sound of the rain was joined by the strains of some beautiful orchestral score, and the angry words died on her lips.

In a few strides of his long legs, he was standing in front of her, tugging the straps of her backpack from her shoulders.

"Abed, what are you doing?" she asked, bewildered, as he set her heavy bag down next to them.

He straightened up and blinked at her, paying no heed to the rain flattening his hair and soaking his clothes.

"I'm sorry about before," he said. "My lack of concentration was mostly to stall and increase tension to make _this _moment more dramatic."

And then he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

His mouth moving over hers, his hands warm against her back - it was just like their first kiss, only this time there was music swelling in the background and it was rain instead of paint and Abed instead of Han Solo... so really, it was nothing like their first kiss.

It was so much better.

When their lips parted, they both stood very still, staring at each other and blinking rainwater from their eyes. Annie struggled to process what had just happened. Abed had just kissed her. In the rain. While romantic theme music played in the background. It felt surreal. How long had he been planning for this? Had all those months of missed opportunities been leading up to this moment?

A worrying thought popped into her head and, though unwilling to completely step away from the warmth of his arms, she leaned back to place a bit of distance between them. It would be just like her to turn this into an Annie-of-it-all moment when it was nothing more than Abed being... Abed. She had to make sure.

"Abed," she said, peering up at him apprehensively through the rain. "Are you re-enacting something? Or... or shooting a scene for a film?"

He shook his head. "No. Nothing like that."

Relief poured through her, and suddenly everything started to feel more _real_. She began to relax back into his arms when another thought came to her. "Wait. Do you even _have _a quiz tomorrow?"

"No," he answered evenly. "That's actually next week. And I never really needed your help to study for it. But the weather forecast said it was going to rain today, so..." He shrugged.

Something seemed to occur to him and he tilted his head, looking concerned. "Should I have waited? I thought you'd like this. In the movies you rent, the romantic leads always kiss in the rain. I figured it was the best way to show you how I feel about you."

Annie had just been about to berate him for using pretence to set her up, but his words made something warm start in her chest and radiate throughout her body, despite her damp and clammy skin. She shook her head and tightened her arms around his neck, drawing him closer. As dramatic and cinematic as the whole thing was, to her the best part was that Abed was holding her and looking at her with the faintest trace of vulnerability in his dark eyes, and she knew that this was more than just a context-demanded-it kiss. It meant something. It was real.

"You know, if this is how you felt, you didn't have to bring a soundtrack, or even wait for it to rain," she told him, a smile spreading across her face. "I mean, it's wonderful, of course, and I love that you went to all this trouble," she hurried on to reassure him. "But you didn't have to plan all of this just for me. _You _would have been enough."

She could feel herself flush, but she lifted her chin and met his gaze, hoping that he could see and understand that she was being completely sincere. In the end, Abed was what she wanted, with all of his quirks and flaws and uniqueness, meta and homages and all.

"I know," he admitted, moving a hand to cup her cheek, and the touch of his fingers melted away any last doubts. "But this was our first Official Kiss, resolving our romantic tension and marking a Relationship Upgrade. I wanted it to feel like the end of a movie."

"Funny," she laughed, tugging him down for another kiss. The answering smile on his lips was like sunlight illuminating the rain. "Feels like a beginning to me."

_Fin_


End file.
